Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Citing
"horrendous crimes," a federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated the
murder conviction and death sentence of condemned Santa Clara County
killer Marvin Pete Walker Jr., one of the longest serving inmates on
California's death row.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned a federal judge's previous ruling that set aside Walker's
1980 murder conviction and death sentence. The Circuit Court rejected
the argument that the jury's verdict was tainted by Walker having been
improperly shackled in front of jurors throughout the trial. It was not
"reasonably probable" the shackling influenced the jury's decision, the
appeals court concluded.

Walker's shackling was "trivial in
comparison to the magnitude of his crimes," 9th Circuit Judge Barry
Silverman wrote for the court.

Judge Ronald Gould partially
dissented from the decision, saying he would have left the murder
conviction intact but overturn the death sentence. Gould wrote that he
had "grave doubt about whether Walker still would have been sentenced to
death" if the jury had evaluated his case without seeing him in leg
shackles during the trial, given his background and the fact he was a
teen at the time of the crime.

U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown
Armstrong in 2011 overturned Walker's death sentence, saying that
forcing him to "wear visible and painful restraints ... undermined the
dignity of the judicial process."

A federal appeals court reinstated the death sentence Thursday for a
San Jose man who killed a teenage employee during a 1979 liquor store
robbery, saying the verdict was not affected by shackling that forced
defendant Marvin Walker to limp to and from the witness stand.

U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong
had granted Walker a new trial in 2011, saying the jury may have been
swayed by a plastic knee brace that sheriff's officers had fastened
under one of Walker's pant legs. The trial judge never stated any reason
for the shackling, and the jury deliberated at length on both Walker's
guilt and his sentence, Armstrong noted.

In overruling Armstrong, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
said the shackle was unobtrusive, the evidence of Walker's guilt was
strong and his crimes were "unspeakably cruel" - killing one employee
and wounding two others during one robbery, and pistol-whipping,
molesting and shooting a woman during another holdup a month later.

The panel voted 3-0 to reinstate his convictions and 2-1 to reinstate his death sentence.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.